iPhone 8 and 8 Plus New Zealand pricing

Apple and New Zealand’s three mobile telecommunications providers — Spark, Vodafone NZ, and 2degrees — have begun unveiling their iPhone 8 and 8 Plus pricing ahead of pre-orders on September 15 and launch on September 22.

Purchasing the iPhone 8 outright from Apple will set New Zealanders back NZ$1,249 for the 64GB model or NZ$1,549 for 256GB, while the iPhone 8 Plus costs NZ$1,449 for 64GB and NZ$1,749 for 256GB from Apple. Both are available in silver, gold, and space grey.

By comparison, in the United States the 64GB iPhone 8 costs $699 and the 256GB model $849, while the 64GB iPhone 8 Plus costs $799 and the 256GB model $949.

Accordingly, even when taking into account the exchange rate, New Zealanders are paying between $200 and $270 extra for the two iPhone 8 models, and $250 to $320 extra for the two iPhone 8 Plus models.

All plans include a Spotify Premium and Lightbox subscription, as well as 1GB of Spark Wi-Fi per day, with the lowest plan capped at 300 minutes of calling and unlimited texts to New Zealand, while all other plans feature unlimited calls and texts to both Australia and New Zealand, as well as rollover data.

Signing a 24-month plan provides customers with the same handset repayment pricing across two tiers: NZ$100 per month for 7.5GB data, and NZ$130 for 15GB data.

Spark also told ZDNet that all variants of the iPhone will be eligible for trade-up upon pre-order, and customers on eligible plans who have made 12 months’ worth of device repayments can trade up to one of the new phones for a one-off payment of NZ$149.

Vodafone NZ

Vodafone NZ’s 24-month plans come in four pricing tiers: Connect Plus, Red+ Essentials, Red+, and Red+ Super. On a 24-month plan while paying off the new iPhones over 24 months, Vodafone customers will be charged:

The lowest plan is capped at 500 minutes of calling to New Zealand and Australia, while all other plans feature unlimited calls to both countries. All four plans include unlimited texts to Australia and New Zealand, while data is sharable with family members and on tablets for a price of NZ$19.99 per month.

Vodafone NZ on Friday also unveiled new prepaid mobile plans, adding more data to each. Advantage Lite now provides 2.5GB of data for NZ$39.99 per month, Red+ Lite includes 6GB for NZ$59.99, and Red+ Essentials includes 22GB for NZ$79.99.

The lowest-tier plan is capped at 300 minutes of calls and the second lowest at 400 minutes, while the rest come with unlimited calls to Australia and New Zealand. All plans include unlimited messaging to both countries, as well.

Apple unveiled the new iPhones in the US this week, spruiking the A11 Bionic processor; six-core CPU built to handle artificial intelligence (AI) tasks; a 3D gaming and machine-learning capable GPU; a smarter Siri; series of augmented reality (AR) apps; support for LTE-Advanced; and wireless charging based on Qi, with chargers to be build throughout cars, retailers, and airports.

The 4.7-inch iPhone 8 comes with a 12-megapixel camera and the 5.5-inch 8 Plus with dual cameras, with both featuring Portrait Lighting changes with real-time analysis via machine learning.

The iPhone X, unveiled at the same time, has disposed with the home button; integrated FaceID facial recognition, with the face data not being sent to a server and instead being stored on a chip; a Super Retina and HDR 10 display with Dolby Vision, True Tone, and 3D Touch support; animated emojis; dual 12-megapixel TrueDepth cameras with f 1.8 and 2.4 apertures; and a quad-LED flash.

According to CEO Tim Cook, Apple is aiming for the “next decade” with the iPhone X.

“The first iPhone revolutionised the first decade of the technology. Ten years later, it’s only fitting to reveal a product that will set the stage for the next decade,” Cook said during the launch.

The iPhone X will launch on November 3, with telco pricing to be revealed closer to that date.